To the Journal editor:

I feel our country’s founding ideals are lost in the attic of history, out of sight out of mind, while we disrespect each other drunk on today’s red or blue politically spiked Kool-Aid.

Samuel believed in natural rights of the individual and of good government. A deeply religious person, who said of the Bible, “When duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world, that which contributes most to making men good, wise, and happy.”

Seemingly ironic, he helped construct the First Amendment, “…Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Samuel’s great-grandfather Henry Adams fled Britain in 1630 because of Church of England’s religious persecution, and understood every government which prioritized a single religious interpretation of the Bible has failed.

Samuel’s cousin John Adams, our second president who described himself as “a church going animal,” pledged his Presidential oath on a law book rather than on the Bible.

Samuel Adams didn’t own slaves and strongly opposed slavery and when a slave was offered as a gift. he vehemently replied, “A slave cannot live in my house. If she comes she must be free.”

In May 1766, Samuel Adams worked with Boston’s representatives to the General Court to propose a law against buying and selling slaves in Massachusetts, as a first step to ending slavery altogether.

The legislature enacted laws against importing slaves but the government in London vetoed the law.

Samuel Adams warned of mankind’s thirst for money on Jan. 2,1776, “I hope our country will never see the time, when either riches or the want of them will be the leading considerations in the choice of public officers. The giving such a preference to riches is both dishonorable and dangerous to government.”

If Samuel Adams could join us today, he’d raise his glass to how far we have come, but would remind us to start treating each other respectfully: “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

It’s vital we respect each other. It’s also our duty to elect government representatives with the manners/moral character to honor their oath of office, only then can we raise our glass to reap the harvest of our good faith efforts.

This round of Sam Adams is for America’s future!